The Wheel of Time: Book Fourteen, A Memory of Light – Summary Part 2

This is a continuation of the summary from part 1.

Setting the Stage

“Dawn broke that morning on Polov Heights, but the sun did not shine on the Defenders of the Light. Out of the west and out of the north came the armies of Darkness, to win this one last battle and cast a Shadow across the earth; to usher in an Age where the wails of suffering would go unheard.” That note, from Loial’s notebook, sets the stage for the Last Battle thematically.

But, let’s set it a bit less poetically and more specifically before we get into it.

In the last phase we saw the Armies of the Light try to battle the Shadow on four fronts. Agelmar and Lan blocked the Trollocs from spilling out from Tarwin’s Gap. Bryne, Egwene, and the Seanchan blocked the Trollocs and Sharans from crossing the Erinin into Arafel and then moving south into the undefended southlands. Bashere and Elayne baited out the Trollocs spilling from the Ways in Caemlyn to prevent them from striking out at either the undefended or swinging north to hit the Armies of the Light from the back. Meanwhile, Ituralde and Aviendha secured Thakan’dar to block the way to Shayol Ghul and give Rand the time he needs to wrestle with Shai’tan.

In terms of casualties, our heroes have done extremely well. The Trollocs from Caemlyn were soundly defeated, with any remaining Trollocs too scattered to be of any serious concern. Though both Agelmar and Bryne were pushed back, they inflicted severe casualties for the ground given. We don’t have good figures for how many Trollocs have actually been killed, but it seems as though they’re being slaughtered several-to-one. Still, losses have been severe for the armies of the Light. Fully two-thirds of the Borderlanders died in the north. About a third of the Aes Sedai and half of Egwene and Bryne’s soldiers were lost, and that estimate is a little out of date, from just after the initial Sharan attack. Half of the soldiers serving Bashere and Elayne fell. The survivors are all exhausted and their supplies are running low. (Try not to even think about how little food will be left for those who survive the war or how the survivors will rebuild and repopulate with literally most adult men and many of the strongest women dead or too injured for field or construction work.)

But don’t forget what we discussed in the last interlude: wars are not won or lost solely on casualties. Recall that the original plan was to hold the Trollocs back from reaching the non-combatants in the south lands by keeping them engaged at Tarwin’s Gap, the border between Kandor and Arafel, and at Caemlyn. Well, that was one of the two goals. The other is to give Rand the time he needs to beat Shai’tan.

Mat explains these two strategic goals directly in chapter 36.

“If Rand loses, it won’t matter. The Wheel is bloody broken, and we all become nothing, if we’re lucky. Well, we can’t do anything more about it. But here’s the thing. If he does what he’s supposed to, we could still lose – we will lose, if we don’t stop the Shadow’s armies.” “We can’t just beat them, Egwene. We can’t just stand and hold on. We have to destroy them, drive them away, then hunt them to the last Trolloc. We can’t just survive… we have to win.”

We have no reason to believe that Shai’tan’s defeat, whether by Rand killing him or imprisoning him, would result in the Trollocs and Myrddraal dying or fleeing in terror, like Sauron’s armies in The Return of the King. Bear in mind that, though the Shadowspawn are creatures of the Shadow, they are ultimately human creations. We’ve seen that, one-for-one, Trollocs don’t match well-organized soldiers and Myrddraal only threaten Aes Sedai in ambush. Yet, Trollocs are more than a match for non-combatants and they have no hesitation or mercy in their pillaging; “havoc” is implicit for Trolloc armies.

In terms of strategy, the goals are the same as they were before the war started, but the situation has changed quite a bit.

First, and most significantly, the Sharans entered the war under Demandred. Nobody saw that coming (well, readers could probably guess that Shara would be involved somehow, and likely not as unexpected allies, but even our Dreamers and Doomseer can’t make predictions based purely on narrative principles.) Shara brings a large number of channelers with them. The Two Towers could have held back a practically infinite number of Trollocs on the right terrain, but now they’ll be hard pressed just to counter the Sharans. This also makes mistakes far more instantly devastating, as we saw with the Sharans’ initial attack, and it puts leadership in greater peril, as we saw in Bryne’s camp.

Fortunately, there have also been a couple of favorable changes which naturally set the stage for the Last Battle at Merrilor.

First, the Trollocs are starving. Lan and Agelmar did well to evacuate the region and scorch the earth as they withdrew, even burning corpses after each battle. The Trollocs have been marched hard and are likely beginning to resort to cannibalism to keep moving. The Sharans are probably better supplied, but they couldn’t stand against the combined armies of the Light without the Trollocs. Moreover, Trollocs are hard enough to keep in ranks even when they’re well-fed. The Shadow cannot afford a siege, they need to either reach undefended land to forage or they need to find some large battles to supply the Trollocs with corpses. Of course, the defenders are also low on supplies, and they can’t really resort to eating corpses.

Second, we’ve shut down the front at Caemlyn and funneled the two northern fronts into Arafel and Shienar. Much of this region has already been evacuated and many of its people are already with the armies. The Trollocs likely want to slip past the defenders to the south, but they’ll need to pass pretty close to Merrilor to do so and they’ll need to move fast to get to meatier lands before their strength gives out. Given the famine over the past year, plundering a couple of isolated villages isn’t going to do much good: they need to hit a real city and that means pushing south to a place like Cairhien or Tar Valon. Passing through terrain held by the enemy while exhausted is dangerous enough before you consider that Trollocs likely lack the discipline to build the solid fortifications around their camps at the end of each march. Just imagine the losses they would incur trying to move south, crossing multiple rivers and passing through forests, all while being hunted by people who know the terrain better than them.

This is where the opposing strategies of the two sides meet, both coming up with the same answer. Really, there are three perspectives to look at here: Mat, Shai’tan, and the Dreadlords.

Mat doesn’t want to give the Trollocs any chance to break to the south. Sure, it would be very costly for the Trollocs, but some would make it through, and those that did would cause severe damage to the undefended people. The Trollocs might spread out and dig in, becoming a permanent plague on the land. Mat would prefer a single, decisive battle to keep the Trollocs contained. Better an amputation than to let the disease spread. Moreover, the alliance is at its strongest now. They’ll run out of supplies soon. If the Trollocs start hitting undefended countries, soldiers from those regions will want to return home to defend their families. If the survivors want to have food then somebody is going to need to start working the fields and most of the farmers are with the armies. This allied army can’t remain mobilized forever. Fearing that the Shadow won’t take the bait, Mat wants to make the confrontation look as desperate and doomed as possible so the Shadow will commit fully now.

Shai’tan’s primary goal here is to crush the world of hope and beat Rand. It knows that Rand can see this war. If Rand sees that the armies of the Light have fallen and the Shadow will cover the world regardless of what he does, perhaps he would give in to Shai’tan. To this end, a single, decisive battle is perfect. Letting the Trollocs spread south might take years to fully sink in. At times, it might even seem like the defenders are winning, which would only encourage Rand. No, better to have a single, crushing battle. Even if the defenders win, a Pyrrhic victory might still serve to crush Rand’s hope. Plus, Shai’tan knows Rand’s heart and he almost certainly knows who he’s bonded to. Alanna isn’t the only person who’s death would distract Rand. It actually seems really reckless that Elayne, Aviendha, and Min don’t seem to recognize this and exercise a bit more caution; a big battle only increases the chance that one or more of them will be killed or taken to be tortured.

The Dreadlords hope for Shai’tan’s victory, of course, but they also hope to rule in their own right. Even if Rand wins, a powerful warlord like Demandred (or Moghedien in disguise) could rally the Sharans and Trolloc armies to conquer in their own name. Given time, perhaps the Dreadlords could even reopen the Bore, undoing Rand’s work. But conquering this continent long-term will require breaking the existing power structures. Massive Trolloc armies would be an expensive burden long-term. It would be better to spend them now to crush the alliance, sending the defenders home. The Dreadlords could then begin Turning key people and using the Sharans to hold conquered territory. If the conflict became one of empires, rather than an unambiguous war of good vs. evil, it would be much more difficult to force unity. Seeing the Sharan threat, the Seanchan would likely feel the need to take more damane and more land… and many of the nations caught in the middle would likely decide that life under the Seanchan doesn’t sound nearly as bad as that under the Dreadlords. Of course, the Seanchan could never actually win, as the damane can’t form real circles, and the Seanchan’s unwavering devotion to their Empress makes her an obvious target for Turning – Fortuona might not want to believe it, but she can learn to channel, after all.

But, none of that can come to pass if the alliance remains strong. Trollocs rampaging across the continent would only serve to strengthen the resistance to the Shadow. No, it’s better for a single, decisive battle.

This brings us to the Last Battle on the Field of Merrilor.

The Trollocs and Sharans that were fighting Egwene and Bryne are to the west, already crossing into Arafel, while the Trollocs that were fighting Agelmar and Lan are in the north. Broadly looking at the map, it looks like they’re around the same distance away; certainly close enough to coordinate a combined assault on this location. It’s a good place to defend, but as we just discussed, the Shadow wants this battle badly and Mat really doesn’t have to try very hard to make it look like they’re exhausted and don’t want another fight, despite wanting it just as bad as the Shadow.

I’ll step through the battle in detail in just a moment, but before we get into that, it’s worth mentioning here that this battle is heavily based on the real-world Battle of Austerlitz or Battle of the Three Emperors in 1805 where Napoleon, at that point Emperor of the French, won a tactically stunning victory against both Emperor Alexander of Russia and Emperor Francis of Austria, despite inferior numbers (though the ratio wasn’t anywhere near what we’re seeing in The Wheel of Time), effectively ending the Third Coalition and establishing the Confederation of the Rhine, which dissolved the Holy Roman Empire. The circumstances surrounding the battle aren’t really relevant here, except that Napoleon’s men were tired and he needed to force a decisive battle, but the battle itself is almost exactly the same. I’ll put the map, rotated and mirrored, on the screen with labels.

It’s a little tricky to make it out on the map, but the Mora corresponds to the Goldbach, cutting north and to the east. Below it lies the Bogs or Satschan Ponds. Nestled beneath the river are the Polov Heights or Pratzen Heights. Napoleon and Mat’s command post is north of the river, across from the Heights.

Napoleon’s tactics here were to start the battle by feigning weakness, as though they were about to retreat, in order to lure the Allies into the battle. He even ceded the Pratzen Heights, an obvious place to defend, which the Allies took greedily. He knew that he had reinforcements coming from the south-west – Davout’s III Corps – but they wouldn’t arrive until after the battle started and his forces would be tired after the forced march. Napoleon’s plan hinged on finding the perfect decisive moment to counter-attack.

The Allies began by fighting Napoleon along the Goldbach near Satschan. The defenders held on for some time, but were losing. Davout arrived to reinforce them. The Allies sent more and more men away from the Heights to reinforce their left. Napoleon waited until the Allies overextended, leaving the Heights weak, to initiate a counter-attack on the Heights, made more effective by mist obscuring the battlefield and hiding his numbers. He successfully took the Heights, splitting the Allies’ forces.

While fighting continued in the south, there was a large cavalry battle north of the Heights. The Allies also seized a village, Bosenitz, in the north, but were halted by cannon fire. Napoleon’s cavalry pushed back the Allies. The Allies made one last push on the Heights from the east, forcing the only loss of a French standard in the battle. Napoleon saw the Heights in trouble and moved in personally, with his own guard cavalry, breaking the Allies’ center. Finally, Napoleon swung south to reinforce those still fighting near Satschan. The Allies there saw that they were beaten with their only escape through the frozen ponds. Some fled through the ponds to drown (only about 200 men, though Napoleon would claim it was thousands.)

For more on Austerlitz, check out Epic History TV, which has a fantastic breakdown.

Anyways, I hate to get too far away from the book, but as we’ll see shortly, this is almost exactly what happens in the Last Battle. Now, does it actually make sense for a battle involving teleportation and spellcasters that could likely threaten modern military hardware in 2023 to go exactly the same as it did in 1805? We’ll get into that more during the analysis video.

Alright, let’s get back into the summary. Rand has begun his contest with Shai’tan. Nynaeve is desperately trying to keep Alanna alive so she doesn’t die and cause Rand to go mad from the Warder bond. Moiraine is… just hanging on to a stalagmite for almost the entire rest of the book. Perrin was wounded by Slayer and left Gaul with the wolves as Rand’s last line of defense in the dream while Thom stands just outside the cavern into Shayol Ghul as the last line of defense in the waking world. The Aiel and Ituralde’s men defend Thakan’dar. Aviendha leads a group of channelers, including Cadsuane and the Wise Ones, to beat the Dreadlords making for Shayol Ghul. Mat now leads the combined armies of the Light, including the Seanchan, as they prepare a last stand at the Field of Merrilor. This is it, the end of an age. The end of a series. The end of this video!

Given how intensely synchronous most of this phase will be (despite Rand’s time moving faster), I’m not going to break it down by perspective: this will be purely in chronological order.

The Last Battle

• The battle begins with Sharans and Trollocs approaching from the west, launching fireballs as they come. Mat orders Lan’s cavalry to the forefront so they can break the Trolloc and Sharan lines. This group will suffer heavy casualties, yet volunteers join until there aren’t enough lances to go around. Logain leads a circle of 40 Aes Sedai and Asha’man (including himself.) He moves the water of the Haval Ford to allow Lan’s forces through so they can charge between the bogs and the Heights to hit the Sharans. The Heights are lined with archers, crossbowmen, and dragoners.
• Well over a hundred Draghkar strike the Seanchan camp at the base of Dashar Knob, bypassing archers who were hit by Sharans, but they get greedy and Elayne catches them, channeling a thunderclap to deafen everyone, allowing the defenders to slaughter the Draghkar with few casualties. Damane help with the Healing; the Seanchan don’t like being touched with the One Power but they’ve begrudgingly accepted how useful of a weave it is. Elayne and Fortuona find time for passive-aggressive bickering: Elayne will only relay orders to the Seanchan through Birgitte and will only offer her foot to a damane for Healing while Fortuona has ensured that her throne is two inches higher than Elayne’s. Elayne speaks with Mat, learning that Mat knew – on some level – that he was going to throw out the battle plan at the last minute all along, to keep spies from relaying it. The foxhead medallion protects him from Compulsion, so he’ll keep the plan all in his head. “Creator shelter us.” “You know, that’s what Tuon said.”
• Captain Uno leads the pikemen and light cavalry on the Heights alongside the dragons, led by Talmanes and Aludra. Uno swears up a storm in his head – “He had tried to keep himself lean so he’d taste flaming terrible when they stuffed him in one of those flaming cookpots” – but he feels reasonably confident about his position as the pikes will keep the Trollocs from scaling the Heights while Lan’s cavalry kills them below. Channelers, around fifty of them, mostly Aes Sedai with some Asha’man, watch for enemy weaves to keep the Heights defended. Given this advantageous position, Uno is surprised when orders arrive via raken to retreat down the southwestern slope. Before he can respond the Heights are hit by a massive attack by Demandred, leading a full circle of 72 and wielding a sa’angreal. Demandred leads with balefire. Kwamesa, the young Grey Sitter who stood with the rebels in Salidar, is among those killed.
• Logain, still by the Mora below the Heights, suspects that his madness is the terror he feels that releasing the One Power will cause him to lose it forever. Though Mat’s orders are for Logain to move people around the battlefield, Logain wants revenge on Taim badly: he’ll ignore Mat’s orders to focus on watching for men channeling. If they spot any, they’ll Travel jump to them and hit them, whether they’re Sharans or traitor Asha’man. If anyone finds Taim they’re to fetch Logain, both so he can manage recovering the seals and so that he can have his revenge. Logain thinks to himself that “the only times he had accomplished anything in life had come when he’d been feared.” Though Logain’s mental state here seems damaged by the attempts to Turn him, he notes with some surprise and seemingly even a bit of regret that when he released Toviene’s bond he sensed that Gabrelle was envious, also wanting to be released. Nonetheless, he begins the hunt for Taim laughing, drawing from an angreal and his circle, considering that he might challenge Demandred after he kills Taim.
• Egwene and Gawyn watch the battle through one of Yukiri’s viewing gateways, which she has improved so that they’re difficult to see from the other side. They see that Demandred is killing thousands, all with balefire. Given that he has both a full circle and a sa’angreal, and is remarkably powerful on his own, there’s nothing they can do about him, as even a full circle of their own would fall short. Bryne notes that he thinks Mat is trying to bait the trap by allowing some early losses and they all see that the battle is moving so quickly that it’ll be decided in in days or maybe even hours. Gawyn sneaks away, without telling Egwene, putting on all three bloodknife rings, so he can go assassinate Demandred. I really want to make fun of Gawyn for this, but of all the reckless and stupid, glory-seeking things Gawyn has done, this one actually doesn’t seem like a completely terrible idea: there’s a real chance that he could kill Demandred, likely saving tens of thousands of lives. Telling Egwene would almost certainly result in a loud argument, which could alert spies and get back to Demandred, ruining the chance.
• Tam leads the Two Rivers archers south of the Mora, north east of the Ruins north of Dashar Knob. The river still flows but Tam expects that the Shadow will try to block it upriver so the Trollocs can cross safely. Mat has the best point to block the river defended by the people of Hinderstap, but they probably won’t hold forever. Bayrd and Galad are nearby as well and Mat is sending more infantry to help hold the river “no matter what.” There’s a little easter egg in this scene: a boy named Dannil, just a little older than Rand, Mat, and Perrin, comments that Mat has changed, “he’s like someone from one of the stories.” Dannil wonders what it would have been like if he had left Emond’s Field with Moiraine. In early drafts of The Eye of the World, this is exactly what happened: Dannil accompanied the others out of Emond’s Field. He was cut from the final version, but not, apparently, from the world.

• The Sharans and Trollocs push the Light off of the Heights and Trollocs secure the position. Pevara, Androl, Emarin, Jonneth, and Canler, among others, still fight nearby. Androl’s Talent with Gateways doesn’t seem to apply to Deathgates, so he sticks with what he knows, using Gateways to redirect arrows, bring down avalanches of snow, throw enemies into the air (instantly killing any Trollocs,) and even decapitating a Myrddraal with a small Gateway (something I’ve been wanting him to do since I first heard about his Talent!) Pevara finds that her feelings toward him are making her blush. When a lightning strike knocks them all down, Pevara accidentally loses herself in the link for a moment and accidentally uses Androl’s Talent to create a Gateway the way he does, even though she was in Androl’s circle at the time and shouldn’t have been able to channel at all.
• Seeing how badly they’re being beaten, people (such as Galad) start questioning Mat, but he insists that they follow orders. “Together, Mat and Demandred were composing a grand painting. Each responded to the other’s moved with subtle care. Mat was trying to use just a little too much red in one of his paints. He wanted to paint the wrong picture, but still a reasonable one. It was hard. He had to be capable enough to keep Demandred back, but weak enough to invite aggression.” Mat orders the Ogier to reinforce the Haval Ford, alongside the Aiel already there, giving the Aes Sedai and Band of the Red Hand a path to retreat from the Heights. He sends orders to Lan, currently on the western side of the Heights, to swing around the back, toward the Mora, behind the Trollocs trying to cross at the ruins. He’s not to engage them, just to stay out of sight and hold position. Through the viewing Gateway, Mat sees that the Sharans are sending light cavalry down from the Heights to strike at the ford, keeping Mat’s forces there from attacking the Trolloc’s left flank. Shortly after sending his order to Lan, Mat sees that the Sharan heavy cavalry on the Heights are moving to intercept Lan, though he hasn’t even received his orders yet, proving that there’s a spy in the command tent relaying orders very quickly (it’s actually kind of obvious that it’s the cute so’jhin with freckles.) Mat sends orders to Talmanes in code: “remember when you bet me I couldn’t throw a coin into a cup from across the entire inn?” He had tried to hustle Talmanes, pretending to get drunk before the attempt, but Talmanes caught him and insisted he actually drink, getting Mat drunk and winning the bet. Talmanes reports back that the dragons are all ruined, “worse than a barmaid in Sabinel.” Mat claims that barmaids there work for tips and the people there don’t tip, but that’s a lie: Sabinel is a town where Talmanes recommended that Mat feign a war wound to seduce a couple of barmaids. Everyone thinks that only five or six dragons are still functional, aimed toward the Heights, but Talmanes’ code indicates that the remaining, damaged dragons are repairable.
• Mat takes Elayne and Birgitte outside to speak privately, explaining that there’s a spy and that he’s going to use them to feed the Shadow bad intel, though he also wants Elayne out of the command tent in case it goes wrong. Elayne is skeptical but Mat explains that a battle is more like cards than dice: “you can lose ninety-nine times but come out ahead if you win [the] right hand. So long as the enemy starts gambling recklessly. So long as you can ride the losses.” He doesn’t know when that moment will be, but he’ll know it when he sees it. He expects that Demandred’s plan is to have the Trollocs at the ruins cross and push the defenders downriver on the eastern side while also having the Sharans and Trollocs on the Heights come down and push the defenders back across the ford, catching the defenders in a pincer on the eastern side of the Mora. Mat also expects Demandred to succeed in blocking the river shortly, meaning that the Trollocs will be able to cross in the currently undefended length between the ford and the ruins. Mat needs Elayne’s soldiers to secure the river in this section before the river is blocked. Elayne insists on accompanying her soldiers personally.
• At the ruins, Galad recognizes that Mat had been right to order him to stay here, as the fighting has grown much more intense, with Trollocs using rafts to cross. Though Galad has experience with battles and understands that soldiers don’t generally know everything that’s going on, he’s surprised at how thoroughly this battle confuses him. As he sees that the river is drying up, it suddenly dawns on him that Mat knew that the river would be blocked when he ordered Galad to stay here. “Light! I’m watching the Game of Houses on the battlefield itself. Yes, he had not given Cauthon nearly enough credit.” Galad receives orders to take a dozen of his best men south along the Mora toward the ford and to stop and hold when they see Elayne’s banner.

• “The Dark One attacked.” “It was an attempt to tear Rand apart, to destroy him bit by bit. The Dark One sought to claim the very elements that made up Rand’s essence, then annihilate them. Rand couldn’t gasp, couldn’t cry out. This attack wasn’t at his body, for he had no true body in this place, just a memory of one. Rand held himself together. With difficulty. In the face of this awesome attack, any notion of defeating the Dark One – of killing him – vanished.” Rand withstands the attack, regaining his confidence, only to be met by Shai’tan’s declaration: “YOU MISTAKE. THIS IS NOT AN ATTEMPT TO DESTROY YOU. THIS IS PREPARATION. TO SHOW YOU TRUTH.”
• Shai’tan weaves a potential future from the Pattern. In it, the taint is back, but far, far worse. Rand sees people he recognizes – Tam is now in his 70s or 80s – all cutting wood lethargically in the Blighted Two Rivers. No one recognizes Rand. “THEY DO NOT KNOW YOU, ADVERSARY.” The Blight kills Joni and Tam while Rand stands helplessly, unable to reach through the taint to grab enough of the source to do anything. Dannil sees that Rand can channel and asks him for help, but he only brings Rand to Nynaeve, who is Forsaken. She calls Rand a wilder and leads him to a group of thirteen channelers and thirteen Myrddraal to Turn him. Nynaeve, Egwene, Logain, and Cadsuane are all Forsaken. Moiraine has been executed. Elayne, Min, and Aviendha are being tortured forever at Shayol Ghul. The Dreadlords fight an endless, pointless battle. Every ocean is Blighted and even the Seanchan are no more. “The Dark One did not like the risk that someone would bring hope back to the world. And nobody ever would.” Shai’tan continues to assault Rand, trying to infect him with fear and doubt. As they start to Turn Rand, he rejects the world, shattering it. Back in the void, Rand grabs the threads of the Pattern – not the simple five elements but thousands of unique, individual threads of the raw Pattern – and spins them into a different possibility.

• Egwene takes the White Tower’s cavalry through the dry riverbed south of the Haval Ford and around the western side of the bogs and meets with Chubain’s group near the Heights. Along the way, Egwene sees fresh cracks of darkness in the ground, caused by the Shadow’s balefire, and discovers a weave to repair it, leaving a thin layer of crystals like a bandage. She also realizes that Gawyn is on the Heights. Egwene also leaves Siuan with Mat and Fortuona, needing Siuan’s ability to “hear what is not spoken,” which is a pretty good idea, but she also takes Bryne with her, presumably because she knew that Siuan and Bryne are supposed to die due to being separated, fulfilling Min’s viewing, later in the book and wanted to help move the narrative along without coming up with a better reason. Despite living nearly half of her life engrossed in prophecies, Siuan never really got a good chance as Amyrlin to totally misinterpret a foretelling or vision as badly as Elaida and Egwene, so she decides that Min’s viewing that she had to stay near Bryne or they’d both die was probably taken care of during the Seanchan attack, even though she could’ve easily verified this with Min rather than just guessing. In fairness, a single old man whose advice can’t be trusted due to Compulsion is probably more useful on the front lines than with his Aes Sedai – that’s how Warders generally work, right? You want them kept away from you so that you can take on all the risk of one of you dying, incapacitating the other, but without the benefit of having someone to watch your back.
• On the Heights, Gawyn is able to sneak through the Sharans and Trollocs with ease, thanks to the rings, though he can feel that they’re changing him. He’s not going for Demandred for the glory or pride of it. “That was not his heart now. He heart was the need. Someone had to fight this creature, someone had to kill him or they would lose this battle. They could all see it. Risking Egwene or Logain would be too great a gamble. Gawyn could be risked. No one would send him to do this – no one would dare – but it was necessary. He had a chance to change things, to really matter. He did it for Andor, for Egwene, for the world itself.” Gawyn attacks Demandred without warning, trying to assassinate him, but Demandred notices just in time to block. Demandred believes that Gawyn was sent by Lews Therin, believing that the “Night’s Shade” weave from the rings is from Rand. Demandred duels Gawyn, keeping the Sharans from interfering. Demandred channels to throw rocks at Gawyn during the duel, which Gawyn calls cheating, but Demandred calls that out as bullshit, given that Gawyn is practically invisible and significantly strengthened by the rings. Demandred talks while fighting, explaining his purpose here: he doesn’t see himself as a simply minion of Shai’tan or a tyrant. “That man you follow, Lews Therin Telamon, he is mad. He thinks he can defeat the Great Lord. He cannot. That is simple fact.” “If I kill Lews Therin, in victory I will be given the right to remake the world as I wish. The Great Lord cares nothing for rule. The only way to protect this world is to destroy it, and then shelter its people.” Demandred firmly believes that Mat is actually Lews Therin, or receiving orders from him, as no living general of this age could possible be this experienced with war (though, as Moiraine mentioned, Mat actually has far more experience with war, in terms of memory, than either Rand or Demandred.) Demandred sees Rand as a coward, not willing to risk himself on the battlefield, sending doomed assassins in his stead, still making the same old mistakes as he plans to kill Shai’tan rather than taking a more reasonable approach. Then the duel ends. Demandred makes one final weird comment about becoming his sword before stabbing Gawyn through the gut and leaving him for dead. Gawyn manages to crawl away and get on his horse, but he’s dying quickly. “His heart cried out; he needed to return to Egwene.”
• Faile is still in the Blight, trying to take the Horn to Shayol Ghul. Mandevwin, the stocky one-eyed man who joined the Band in its first days at Cairhien, tries to explain that Vanin and Harnan aren’t Darkfriends but Faile won’t hear it. The group enters the Blasted Lands, a reprieve from the horrors of the Blight but also a sign of how close they are to the Shadow. They find a supply station, perhaps the Shadow’s central supply station, sending supplies through Gateways to the Trolloc armies. There are Samma N’Sei in the village, but Faile’s caravan doesn’t know what that means. Though it’s almost insanely risky, Faile considers trying to sneak through one of the Gateways to bring the Horn to Merrilor, as they’re still some distance from Thakan’dar. She can’t know just how critical it is that she gets the Horn to Merrilor immediately, but Faile has a good head for logistics and must know that there’s a chance that the Last Battle won’t wait for them to reach Thakan’dar. Moreover, they could be captured or killed trying to break through the Shadow’s armies at Thakan’dar just as easily as in this supply village. Faile doesn’t really get much time to really shine in A Memory of Light, coming off as a bit paranoid at times, but I want to emphasize here that Faile doesn’t know what we know: she’s not reading the book. She’s making solid and bold decisions here while keeping a group of scared people in order through a truly hopeless place. Even her suspicion for Vanin and Harnann is entirely reasonable given that, again, she hasn’t been reading The Wheel of Time but she does know that mercenaries aren’t particularly trustworthy.
• Perrin awakens in Berelain’s palace, which is being used as a Healing center. Uno is also around, waiting his turn for Healing. Though Perrin wants to join the battle, Janina, one of the Wise Ones who traveled with Perrin’s forces, explains that he simply cannot join the battle: he needs rest. Taking his exhaustion from him with the One Power would be too dangerous in his state. More important than joining the battle, Perrin needs to go back to Gaul before he dies of exhaustion in the dream. Perrin also learns that Faile is missing. Despite all of that, Perrin begrudgingly accepts that he simply needs a little more real sleep if he hopes to be of any use to anyone.
• Despite all the horror of the battle, Androl and Pevara spare a few private moments for warmth. “He smiled. Light! How long had it been since he’d felt this way about a woman? Love was supposed to be something for young fools, wasn’t it?” Pevara senses him thinking of her as a strap of good leather and he senses her comparing him to a bunch of little figurines, the ones that represent her lost family. Theodrin, the Aes Sedai raised by Egwene but still treated as Accepted, the one who tried to help Nynaeve break her block based on her own experience of only being able to channel while near a man she had feelings for, is with them. Though she didn’t take a Warder at the Black Tower, Pevara notes that this “Accepted” is certainly looking at Jonneth as though she plans to bond him. If she does, and he bonds her back, maybe Pevara and Androl can learn if what they have is unique, or if it’s a new type of bond between men and women who can channel. This group recently survived a hard attack that they think was from Demandred, who they’re trying to avoid. They’re hunting Taim.
• The fighting in Thakan’dar has turned to chaos. “There were no more battle lines.” The Myrddraal and Trollocs broke the defender’s hold on the mouth but they’re still holding at the bottom of the mountain. The storm has come in full force, with lightning striking so often that the ground is turning to glass. Though things seem bleak, the Trollocs take incredible casualties pushing through the defenses; the two sides are roughly even in terms of numbers. The Aiel still prioritize the Samma N’Sei, particularly the ones who can channel. Rhuarc notes that few of the red-veils fight like Aiel, not holding their weapons properly and not moving with grace or stealth. “Why would they want to, when they could channel?” Rhuarc takes advantage of this, stealthily killing a red-veil channeler and a couple of Trollocs before melting away into the landscape. He sees that the wolves have joined the battle in full, killing Shadowspawn wherever they find them. Then we get a real gut-punch: “Something hit him. He gasped, falling to his knees. He looked up, and someone beautiful stepped through the storm to inspect him. She had wonderful eyes, though the two were offset from one another. He’d never before realized how horribly balanced everyone else’s eyes were. Thinking of it nauseated him. And all other women had too much hair on their heads. This creature, with thinning hair, was far more marvelous.” Hessalam’s Compulsion is instant and complete, affecting Rhuarc before he even realizes what’s happening. He happily joins her collection of pets, even growing furiously jealous of another enslaved man in her collection.

• Outside the Pattern, Rand walks through the world he created, showing his potential future to Shai’tan. It’s been one hundred years since the Last Battle, one hundred years of peace. The Ogier work alongside Two Rivers craftsmen, now renowned throughout the world for their Ogier-taught skill. The division between noble and commoner for Tairens is growing smaller. Perrin’s granddaughter, Lady Adora, is mayor of Emond’s Field. She gives a speech in front of a magnificent building. “It was not a government office, though it might seem so from the front. It was much more important. A school.” A school where all are welcome, “from the poorest farmer to the children of the Mayor.” Despite the joy and life, Rand can’t help but notice the familiar faces in the monument to the Last Battle. “This should be my fight. They shouldn’t have to die.” Still, Rand tries to focus on the good. There was nearly a war five years ago between Murandy and Tear, but it ended with just three wounded and none dead, the worst fighting in years, aside from the Sharan campaigns. Shai’tan heckles the world from darkness in a mirror, not stepping fully into the world. “YOU THINK YOU CAN ELIMINATE SUFFERING? EVEN IF YOU WIN, YOU WILL NOT. ON THOSE PERFECT STREETS, MEN ARE STILL MURDERED AT NIGHT. CHILDREN GO HUNGRY DESPITE THE EFFORTS OF YOUR MINIONS. THE WEALTHY EXPLOIT AND CORRUPT; THEY MERELY DO SO QUIETLY.” “IT IS NOT ENOUGH, AND WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH. YOUR DREAM IS FLAWED. YOUR DREAM IS A LIE. I AM THE ONLY HONESTY YOUR WORLD HAS EVER KNOWN.” Shai’tan comes at Rand like a storm, trying to tear him apart, but Rand withstands it. Shai’tan consumes the potential world, returning it to possibility.

• Egwene split her Cavalry into two groups after rounding the bogs. Silviana, fighting at her side, spots Egwene suddenly pale and start trembling, feeling that Gawyn is hurt, badly. Silviana wants Egwene to pass the bond to her so she can go find Gawyn; that way, if he dies, it won’t incapacitate Egwene. Egwene refuses, but she keeps her composure, not Traveling directly to Gawyn but instead taking her cavalry to push up to the Heights, as ordered. It’s slower, maybe not fast enough, but if they succeed in pressing on to the Heights, she might be able to find Gawyn. Egwene asserts that even if Gawyn dies, she’ll survive it and keep fighting. Silviana notes, with frustration: “The Shadow didn’t need to fell the Amyrlin herself to stop her. It just had to kill one idiot boy.”
• Elayne continues to fight along the Mora, as she has for the last two hours. Birgitte tries to focus on the battle, but she realizes that she can no longer remember anything at all from before being cast out of the dream. She feels that she’s supposed to know someone named Gaidal, and she remembers talking about Tel’aran’rhiod, but nothing more. Elayne sees that Demandred’s power, with his sa’angreal and full circle, eclipses Rand’s. He’s destroyed the remaining dragons (well, except for the ones that Talmanes is repairing.) Elayne’s right flank is in jeopardy. Galad, who has been fighting here for a couple of hours without knowing why Mat sent him and his small group here, receives a message from Mat: “Not much time to be flowery. You’re the only one I trust with this mission. You’ll do what is right, even when nobody bloody wants you to. The Borderlanders might not have the stomach for this, but I’ll bet I can trust a Whitecloak. Take this. Get a gateway from Elayne. Do what has to be done.” “PS, In case you don’t know what ‘Do what needs to be done’ means, it means that I want you to go bloody slaughter as many of those Sharan channelers as you can. I’ll bet you a full Tar Valon mark – it’s only been shaved on the sides a little – that you can’t kill twenty.” Along with the message, Mat sent Galad one of the copies of the foxhead medallion. Despite his chivalry, Galad was the right man for this job. “Women are as fully capable of being evil as men. Why should one hesitate to kill one, but not the other? The Light does not judge one based on gender, but on the merit of the heart.” Before Galad leaves for the Heights, he sees Bryne, who is looking for Gawyn. Galad can’t imagine Gawyn sneaking, but he can easily imagine him wanting to get into the fight.

• Mat still doesn’t have a specific plan for winning the battle. “Demandred knew how to gamble. Mat could sense it through the movements of troops. Mat was playing against one of the best who had ever lived, and the stake this time was not wealth. They diced for the lives of men, and the final prize was the world itself. Blood and bloody ashes, but that excited him. He did feel guilty about that, but it was exciting.” Thus far Mat’s strategy has just been to keep Demandred busy, constantly engaging him without bein predictable and preventing Demandred for achieving any winning objectives, but right now the Trollocs crossing the riverbed at the ruins are close to breaking Tam’s defense. Mat orders Lan’s cavalry, still hidden and holding position to the north-east of the Heights, to charge the Trollocs at the riverbed from behind, which should crush them and relieve the defenders. Logain enters the command tent uninvited, tying the guards in air. Mat orders him to fight alongside the White Tower against the Sharan channelers but Logain refuses. “I stood forth to fight. And what was my reward? Ask the Red Ajah. They will tell you the reward of a man abused of the Pattern. The Pattern demanded a Dragon! And so I came! Too soon. Just a little too soon.” “I follow the Lord Dragon. Let him die. I wish no part of that feast. I and mine should be with him, not fighting here. This battle for the little lives of men is nothing compared to the battle happening at Shayol Ghul.” Mat sees through Logain’s bluster: if he really wanted to go then he already would have, trying to stop him would be pointless. What Logain really wants is to face Demandred. “The Dragon’s… replacement, if you will.” (Do we all get that Logain, Demandred, Taim, and Gawyn are all foils yet? We’ll discuss that more in analysis, but it’s frankly just a bit too on the nose here.) Anyways, Mat doesn’t really think Logain has a chance – I mean, he obviously doesn’t, not without a full circle and a sa’angreal, at the very least – but he allows it, not really having any other option. Min notes that Logain’s glory is yet to come.
• Mat and Fortuona plan on having a fake fight, similar to when Rand and Perrin split when Perrin went to handle Masema, but a grey man assassin interrupts them. Mat notices the assassin just in time, but then a damane calls out a warning that there’s channeling nearby. As the command tent goes up in flames Min throws herself at Fortuona to protect her, not knowing that Fortuona’s regalia is secretly designed to come apart so she can move freely. Fortuona, dagger in hand, leaps out to help Mat. As Min flees she sees that the attackers are Sharan. Siuan saves Min, who is shocked to see Siuan there without Bryne. “It hangs above you, right now. Whatever you think you did, the viewing has not been accomplished yet. It’s still there.” Siuan freezes, realizing the mistake, but she can’t flee now, with Mat in danger: he’s more important to this battle than Siuan or Bryne. Mat and Fortuona still fight, the command tent in chaos. A sul’dam dies, leaving her damane a weeping mess, unable to participate in the fight. Min throws a dagger to save Mat, but in the brief moments that she was distracted, Siuan was killed by a fire blast. We don’t need to see it to know: so near the front lines with his Aes Sedai killed, Bryne will be dead in minutes. “She was never wrong. Sometimes, Min hated her accuracy. But she was never wrong.” Mat and Fortuona are both wounded but Mat is still on his feet, carrying Fortuona.
• Egwene, Vora’s sa’angreal still in hand, fighting alongside Bryne’s soldiers and her Aes Sedai, reaches the west side of the Heights. The land here has been thoroughly blasted, filled with pocks, furrows, and holes. Gawyn is near, but Egwene still needs to fight through more Sharans to reach him.
• Demandred surveys the battlefield with a falcon, knowing that this gives him an advantage as only the True Power enables this, but also frustrated that the custom of shooting ravens was somehow remembered by Borderlanders after three thousand years. Still, he sees that the Light has learned to use Gateways as viewing portals, something they never thought of in the Age of Legends. Though his forces have been advancing, he sees that it’s been costly, and the Trollocs numbers aren’t unlimited. Demandred wants to strike directly at Dashar Knob directly but can’t risk the chance that he could be caught. Regardless of cost, he controls the battlefield, so he will choose where to confront Lews Therin. Word arrives that the attack on Mat failed, but Demandred didn’t expect it to: he just wanted to disrupt the command tent and reveal Lews Therin’s disguise… but Mat never channeled, giving Demandred reason to doubt. Rand has gained a reputation for jumping about the battlefields disguised, and Demandred remembers that Lews Therin always wanted to do everything himself. But, then, why send the assassin and who not channel when attacked? And what else could explain Cauthon’s skill as a general? “During the War of Power, the only thing that Demandred had ever done better than his friend was as a battle general.” “Lews Therin had never been able to correctly balance caution and boldness.” “If this Cauthon was Lews Therin, the man had grown better at that. The enemy general knew when to flip the coin and let fate rule, but did not let too much ride on each result. He would have made an excellent card player.” Demandred, as Bao the Wyld, speaks with Shendla, a Sharan woman. “You said some would call your actions evil. But I do not see them as such. Our path is clear. Once you are victorious, you will remake the world, and our people will be preserved.” “Her voice seemed to imply that perhaps, once Lews Therin was dead, Demandred would be able to become his own man again. He was not certain. Rule only interested him insofar as he could use it against his ancient enemy. The Sharans, devoted and faithful, were just a tool. But within him, there was something that wished it was not so. That was new.” M’Hael arrives via the True Power, taunting Demandred that he’s about to lose near the ruins. Demandred’s response is demonstrative of the difference between them: he locks a True Power shield around Taim which drains him like a circle. While Taim starts to seize, Demandred explains that he doesn’t care about these power games between the Chosen, he’s just here for Lews Therin. If Taim interferes, Demandred will kill him, easily. Though Taim is at Demandred’s mercy, his face shows fury, not fear. Still, Demandred sees that Taim may still be a useful tool. “You may have a hundred pet Asha’man. I have over four hundred of my Ayyad. I am this world’s savior.”

• Rand and Shai’tan continue to struggle against one another. “How long had he been in this place? A thousand years? Ten thousand?” “Rand could see the threads swirling around him, forming the Pattern. As it formed, he saw battlefields below him. Those he loved fighting for their lives. These were not possibilities; this was the truth, what was actually happening. The Dark One wrapped around the Pattern, unable to take it and destroy it, but able to touch it. Tendrils of darkness, spines, touched the world at points all along its length. The Dark One lay like shadow upon the Pattern. When the Dark One touched the Pattern, time existed for him.” Shai’tan prepares to weave another potential reality for Rand. Not the hell world from before, but something far more insidious, closer to Shai’tan’s desire.

• Juilin Sandar, the common thief-catcher, has somehow found himself in charge of a squad of men on the western side of the Heights, forcing the Sharans up the slopes with pikes and spears. “He wasn’t supposed to be here. He was supposed to be someplace warm, with Amathera.” “He figured that every man on the field felt they should be someplace else. The only thing to do was keep on fighting.”
• Androl, Pevara, Emarin, Theodrin, and Jonneth use the Mask of Mirrors to disguise themselves as Darkfriends to sneak on to the Heights. They’re taken to Demandred, who believes that they’re Taim’s Dreadlords and is furious that they’re not fighting the White Tower, as commanded. Now they know that Taim is on the battlefield, near the White Tower’s forces.
• Galad and his twelve companions hunt Sharan channelers on the Heights, staying to the perimeter of the fighting to avoid the worst of it, looking for small, isolated groups. The Heights are being torn apart by the One Power. “Lightning had struck so often that Galad could barely hear any longer, and his eyes watered from the pain of seeing blasts strike nearby.” The battle lines have fractured, which suits Galad’s purpose here, allowing him better hunting. Galad leads each strike, negating the weaves with the medallion. “What did you do when the One Power failed, the thing you relied upon to raise you above common folk? You died.” Galad’s companions revel in the Children of the Light finally finding their true purpose. “This is what the Children have awaited for centuries. You are the first to deliver it. The Light illumine you, Galad Damodred. The Light illumine you!” “May the Light illumine a day when men need not kill at all. It is not fitting to take joy in death.” They come across Gawyn, on the verge of death, only still alive thanks to the Warder bond. “I failed. I should have… I should have stayed with her. I killed Hammer. Did you know that? I killed him. Light. I should have picked a side…” Gawyn explains that he tried and failed to kill Demandred. “I wasn’t good enough. I’ve never… been quite good… enough.” “Galad found himself in a very cold place. He had seen men die, he had lost friends. This hurt more. Light, but it did. He had loved his brother, loved him deeply-and Gawyn, unlike Elayne, had returned the sentiment.” With his dying words, Gawyn explains that Galad won’t be left without a brother. Gawyn’s last words are: “Don’t hate him, Galad. I always hated him, but I stopped. I… stopped…” Galad sends his companions away to care for the wounded. “I will do what needs to be done. I will bring Light to the Shadow. I will bring justice to the Forsaken.”
• “Gawyn’s thread of life vanished. Egwene lurched to a stop on the battlefield. Something severed within her. It was as if a knife suddenly tore into her and scooped out the piece of Gawyn inside, leaving only emptiness.” Egwene falls, screaming, to her knees. Vora’s sa’angreal still in hand, she draws to her limit and throws it against the Sharans. Gasping and through tears, Egwene sees the Whitecloaks withdrawing, she had been so close. She drops saidar and allows those around her to carry her off the battlefield, through a gateway.
• Tam is on the palisade now, fighting Trollocs surging across the riverbed. His forces are spread out along the river. The Legion of the Dragon block the river further south. The Whitecloaks fight nearby, enveloped by Trollocs. The defenders this side of the river have held the Trollocs back so far, but they’re low on supplies and completely out of arrows. “‘Leave the bows here. We will fetch them when more arrows come our way.’ More arrows wouldn’t come, but the Two Rivers men would be happier pretending that they might go back to their bows.” They have an assortment of weapons and shields, but no pikes. Tam organizes the men into two wedges and prepares them to push into the Trollocs around the Whitecloaks to give them time to break free.
• Though Fortuona knows that the Deathwatch Guard couldn’t have done anything to prevent the Sharan attack on the command tent, she knows that it would insult their honor not to punish them for the failure. It twists her heart to do so, but she gives the execution order to Karede personally, allowing him the additional honor of speaking to him directly, rather than through her Voice. She orders him to engage the enemy marath’damane directly and sees Karede relax, relieved that he’ll still have the opportunity to serve. “This was a mercy.” “She turned away from the man who had cared for her during her youth, the man who had defied what was expected of him. all for her. She would find her own penance for what she must do later. At this point, she would grant him the honor she could.” She raises Min, now “Darbinda” – “Girl of Pictures” – to the Blood for saving her. Knowing that there’s almost certainly a spy still around, she initiates the ruse she and Mat concocted, accusing him of incompetence and ordering all of the Seanchan forces but the Deathwatch Guard to Travel back to Ebou Dar. “We will fight the true Last Battle there once these fools have bloodied the Shadowspawn for us.”

• Rand explores the potential world Shai’tan wove for him. He’s in Caemlyn, much as he remembers it. Even the hole blasted by Talmanes is there, but the city now spills out from that hole. “What game was the Dark One playing? Surely this normal, even prosperous, city would not be a part of his plans for the world.” A fruit vendor is selling peaches that have somehow had the toxin removed. A starving urchin steals a piece and, without breaking her composure, the vendor murders him with a pistol. She wonders why a man as apparently wealthy as Rand would be traveling without guards and asks his faction. Rand flees the scene and finds Basel Gill in The Queen’s Blessing in a scene reminiscent of The Eye of the World. Gill recognizes Rand, but as the boy he was when he first met him, not as the Dragon Reborn. Rand learns that it’s the fourth Age and humanity apparently won the Last Battle. Gill goes to fetch Rand a faction symbol, but when he returns he brings three men to rob Rand. “Why would there be laws against theft? What manner of person are you, to think such things? If a man cannot protect what he has, why should he have it? If a man cannot defend his life, what good is it to him?” That’s right, Shai’tan is a libertarian. “I LET THEM THINK THEY WON. MANY WHO FOLLOW ME DO NOT UNDERSTAND TYRANNY.” “MEN WHO THINK THEY ARE OPPRESSED WILL SOMEDAY FIGHT. I WILL REMOVE FROM THEM NOT JUST THEIR WILL TO RESIST, BUT THE VERY SUSPICION THAT SOMETHING IS WRONG.” “WHAT I SHOWED BEFORE IS WHAT MEN EXPECT. IT IS THE EVIL THEY THINK THEY FIGHT. BUT I WILL MAKE A WORLD WHERE THERE IS NOT GOOD OR EVIL. THERE IS ONLY ME.” Rand asks if even the Chosen know Shai’tan’s true aim: they do not. It’s almost as if Shai’tan is the lord of lies or something. “This was true horror. This was a full corruption of the world, it was taking everything beautiful from it, leaving behind only a husk.” “Rand would rather live a thousand years of torture, retaining the piece of himself that gave him the capacity for good, then live a moment in this world without Light.” “You show me your true heart? I will show you mine, Shai’tan. There is an opposite to this Lightless world you would create. A world without Shadow.”

• Back at the battle, Mat is anxious that Fortuona might actually keep the Seanchan away. He sends Min to watch her for him. Mat orders Karede with him: he’s going to the front lines to get a feel for what Demandred’s doing. It’s not precisely what Karede was ordered to do, but it’s close, and he gets Mat to agree to stop calling the Empress “Tuon” in return.
• “Tam al’Thor became the void. He brought it to the Trollocs, showed it to them and sent them into its depths.” Lan’s cavalry arrive in time to support Tam and the Legion, slaughtering the Trollocs in a pincer and securing the river. Lan saw Tam fighting. “I had long wondered about the man who had given Rand that heron-marked blade. I wondered if he had truly earned it. Now I know.” Though the river at the ruins is secure, it was the lesser fight. “Demandred pressed his Trolls hard here to keep us from drawing resources to the larger battle at the ford downriver.” Though it’s nearly night, everyone at the ruins will be needed elsewhere shortly. Berelain shows up through a gateway with thousands of refugees from Caemlyn, mostly children and the elderly, who want to help, recognizing that it would be better to die here than to wait for death later if the battle is lost. Women and children begin gathering arrows while hundreds of Tinkers search for wounded under the direction of several Yellow sisters. Berelain wants to know how Galad fares, but Tam hasn’t heard from him in hours.
• Elayne hasn’t heard from Mat since the attack on the command tent. She takes command until Mat reappears. “Humankind did not have days remaining, but hours.” We get confirmation that Bryne died as expected, suddenly riding off, screaming, into enemy lines when Siuan died. Demandred approaches. “Lews Therin! I hunt a woman you love! Come to me, coward!” Birgitte takes Elayne to safety, sending a decoy to draw Demandred’s attention. “There’s a reason Demandred struck at Dashar Knob and then directly at you. He’s trying to destroy our command structure. Your duty is to assume command from someplace safe and secret.” Elayne begrudgingly allows Birgitte to save her.
• “[Demandred] had taken Galad’s brother. Now the monster hunted Galad’s sister. The right thing had always seemed clear to Galad before, but never had it felt as right as this. Those streaks of [balefire] were like indicators on a map, arrows pointing his way. The Light itself guided him.” “Demandred, you call for the Dragon Reborn! You demand to fight him! He is not here, but his brother is! Will you stand against me?” Galad still hasn’t processed learning that Rand is his brother, not sure whether to be proud or ashamed. Once again, Demandred agrees to a one-on-one duel. As with Valda, Galad once again enters a duel that he does not expect to survive, satisfied that, if he takes one of the Forsaken with him, then it will be a fitting end.
• Mat moves to the back of the Andoran lines fighting at the ford. Bashere and Deira are here too and have seen fighting. Mat sends them upriver to tell Lan to engage the Trollocs trying to move around the Andoran’s right flank and that he’ll have more orders soon. Mat collects the Ogier for his plan, noting that some of the Seanchan Gardeners fight alongside the other Ogier, but the two factions can hardly look at one another. Mat has a plan, but he also feels Rand tugging at him. The colors when he thinks of Rand are gone now, replaced with shadow. He’s surprised to find Teslyn among the Dragonsworn: she no longer feels at home at the White Tower. He requests a large gateway to the Heights. “Now he had a chance to finish this. Elayne’s forces holding along the river, Egwene fighting in the west… Mat had to seize t he northern part of the Heights. He knew that with the Seanchan gone and most of his troops occupied around the lower part of the Heights, Demandred would send a strong force of Sharans and Trollocs across the top to the northeast, to swing down across the riverbed and behind Elayne’s armies. The armies of the Light would be surrounded and at Demandred’s mercy. His only chance was to keep Demandred’s troops from coming off the Heights, despite their superior numbers.” Note, again, that this is essentially the same critical counterattack from the Battle of Austerlitz..
• Egwene awakens, surrounded by Silviana and Rosil. She was brought to the Healing center at Berelain’s palace. Silviana and Rosil intend for Egwene to stay here and recover from losing her Warder. You’d think, of all people, Silviana would know Egwene better than this. “Egwene al’Vere can grive. Egwene al’Vere lost a man she loved, and she felt him die through a bond. The Amyrlin has sympathy for Egwene al’Vere, as she would have sympathy for any Aes Sedai dealing with such a loss. And then, in the face of the Last Battle, the Amyrlin would expect that woman to pick herself up and return to the fight.” Though Egwene struggle to even embrace saidar, neither woman would dare trying to stop her. “Your only choice is a bad one, to overwhelm those emotions of grief and pain with stronger emotions.” “That should not be difficult at all.” Egwene embraces fury. Not only will she return to the battle, but she need a new Warder – Gawyn was not a weakness! Egwene bonds Leilwin. Then, she returns to the battle. We’ll talk more about this bit during analysis, as there’s a lot to unpack here.
• Galad draws out the fight with Demandred, knowing that even if he fails to kill him, every moment he delays him here saves lives. Galad actually manages to cut Demandred, just a bit, but his arm gives out. Demandred cuts off Galad’s right arm at the elbow and leaves him for dead.
• Androl, disguised as Nensen, finds Taim, who still has the seals. Taim doesn’t notice the disguise, focused entirely on learning what Demandred is doing. Androl mentions that he saw… Androl on the battlefield, which gives Taim an idea. He weaves a disguise on Androl to make him look like… Androl, then orders him to find Logain and kill him. Androl returns to his friends with the seals in hand, having swiped them while stumbling to his feet while Taim was torturing him.
• Tam and Arganda have orders from Mat to return upriver, cut across the river, and march up the Heights from the eastern side. They’re a bit confused by the orders, but have learned to just follow Mat’s orders. Lan’s cavalry arrives to support them. The Sharans are massing on the northeast of the Heights, planning to swing behind those fighting downriver. Resupplied with arrows, the Two Rivers archers softening the Sharan lines before Lan’s cavalry hits them, then Arganda’s infantry moves in to keep them from setting up defenses. Trollocs join the battle on the Heights. Then, Demandred returns to the battle, having defeated Galad. Cavalry from the Band of the Red Hand, hidden on the northern side of the Heights, join the fray, breaking the Trollocs and Sharans and securing the Light’s position on the northeast side of the Heights while the Shadow regroups. The Ogier arrive as well. Yet, despite this small victory, Arganda and Lan see that they’re likely doomed. There are too many Trollocs, too many Sharan channelers, and Demandred is an army in himself. Of course, Lan has been in this position for a long, long time. “We stand atop the high ground, and we fight until we die, Ghealdanin. You surrender when you’re dead. Many a man has been given less.”

• Rand weaves a world entirely clean of the Shadow, noting that the threads of possibility resist as he works, indicating how unlikely this reality is. In this world of the Light, Shai’tan can hardly manifest at all. Once again, Rand walks through Caemlyn. There are no guards at the palace. A child sees Rand’s sword and doesn’t know what it is. “In this world, men could not conceive that one would want to hurt another. It didn’t happen.” “None of this generation had ever carried a weapon, and were baffled by the stories of their grandparents having fought.” The Blight and the Shadowspawn had all died when Shai’tan did, like when a Myrddraal linked to Trollocs dies. Channelers create enough food for all. The White Tower is a place of Healing and making gateways, bringing loved ones together. Through viewing gateways showing places across the world, Rand sees his grave in what had been the Blasted Lands, now overgrown with life. It’s been a hundred years, but Elayne looks the same as she did. Yet, when Rand looks in her eyes, he sees that she has a shadow there, similar to when someone has been Turned. She speaks in a simpering tone with a vapid look on her face. In this world, Aviendha spends her time volunteering to play with children and singing. Distantly, Shai’tan gloats. “DID YOU THINK THAT REMOVING ME FROM THEIR LIVES WOULD LEAVE THEM UNALTERED?” “I TURN MEN TO ME. IT IS TRUE. THEY CANNOT CHOOSE GOOD ONCE I HAVE MADE THEM MINE IN THAT WAY. HOW IS THIS ANY DIFFERENT, ADVERSARY? IF YOU DO THIS, WE ARE ONE.” “IN KILLING ME, I WOULD WIN. NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO, I WILL WIN.” Rand sees that this world is horrible. The world dissipates and Shai’tan attacks again.

• Demandred doesn’t take the bait, holding the Sharans back on the Heights rather than abandoning the Heights to take Elayne’s army. The Sharans appear to be winning the fight against the Aes Sedai, but then Mat sees streaks of fire coming from that direction and Sharans fleeing from it (this is likely Egwene returning to the battlefield.)
• Faile’s group managed to ambush a caravan and take its place to sneak into the supply village. The disguise works and they make it through a gateway to Merrilor, just beneath the Heights, in a Trolloc camp. While they’re trying to figure out how to get to Mat, Aravine betrays them. “I had hoped to leave my old life behind. To start fresh and new. I thought I could hide, or that I would be forgotten, that I could come back to the Light. But the Great Lord does not forget, and one cannot hide from him. They found me the very night we reached Andor.” She takes the Horn to bring it to Demandred. Olver stabs the woman holding Faile in Air, then, suddenly, pens of captives burst open, throwing the camp into chaos.
• The Aes Sedai are being pressed back by the Sharans. Leane and Doesine fight side-by side until Doesine dies. Then, they see Egwene’s return, sa’angreal in hand, “eyes glowing with the power of a hundred bonfires.” Egwene releases a dozen separate flows of fire in the Sharans. The Aes Sedai group on Egwene’s position.

• Talmanes, Aludra, and the dragoners are in a cavern only accessible via gateway, repairing the dragons. They sing Jack o’ the Shadows as they work, nearly ready to rejoin the battle.
• Faile jumps on a horse to chase down Aravine. Vanin and Harnan appear: earlier they had allowed themselves to be captured and they were the ones who prepared the captives to break free. They explain that they weren’t trying to steal the Horn in the Blight, they were just trying to steal some of Mat’s tabac, which is – after all – what Faile said was in the case. The three chase down Aravine, Faile hits her with a thrown dagger. She gets the Horn, but she’s surrounded, about to be caught. She gives Olver the Horn but keeps the bag, making a show of still having it as she rides away as a distraction, planning to kill herself just before she’s caught so she can’t give up where the Horn is. Olver is stuck, surrounded by Trollocs and Darkfriends, hiding beneath a wagon with the Horn. He begins to despair, left alone yet again. The Trollocs find him and he jumps on the nearest horse, which happens to be Bela. He initially wishes that he had Wind, so he could outrun them, but Bela performs well. “Light, but she ran. Mat had said that many horses were frightened of Trollcs, and would throw their rider if forced near them, but this animal did none of that. She thundered right past howling Trollocs, right through the center of the camp.” He nearly gets away, but Trollocs arrows kill Bela beneath him. With no other options, Olver finds a shallow crack in the ground to hide in with the Horn. Trollocs tear at his clothes, just barely unable to reach him.
• Androl gives Logain the seals. Logain thanks him. “Twice now, I am in your debt. I name you full Asha’man. Wear the pin with pride.” He hands Androl his own dragon pin. Then, Logain states that he will face Demandred. Internally, we see that his thoughts aren’t selfless. He still wonders whether he’ll ever have his vengeance for being gentled and he’s still terrified that saidin will be taken from him again. He knows that Demandred has a sa’angreal, one that might even rival Callandor. “With that in Logain’s hands, many things in this world would change. The world would know of him and the Black Tower, and they would tremble before him as they never had for the Amyrlin Seat.” Logain leaps through a gateway directly to Demandred, weaves already formed before he even steps out. Demandred nearly hits him with a Deathgate, splashing lava on him. With the sa’angreal in hand, Demandred completely outmatches Logain, regardless of skill. Demandred shields Logain, who disrupts it by throwing a rock at him before retreating, admitting to Gabrelle that he can’t take Demandred. He notes, with some surprise, that he senses real concern from her.
• Egwene leads the channelers on the western side of the Heights. The cracks of shadow in the ground have grown worse, with sickly tendrils now reaching up from them. In the short time they’ve been fighting, Leilwin has already proven to be a faithful Warder. Egwene sees Taim ahead and moves to face him. She nearly shields him and he nearly balefires her, but Egwene forces Taim to withdraw first. She keeps remembering what Perrin said in Tel’aran’rhiod: “it’s only a weave.” It seems impossible to her that balefire simply has no counter, given that everything else in the One Power has a balance to it.
• Raen and Ila, the Tuatha’an we met in The Eye of the World, help look for wounded. Ila thinks on Aram and how they shouldn’t have turned their backs on him. Raen considers the people who fight. “I am not going to abandon the Way, Ila. It is my path, and it is right for me. Perhaps… perhaps I will not think quite so poorly on those who follow another path. If we live through these times, we will do so at the bequest of those who died on this battlefield, whether we wish to accept their sacrifice or not.” Ila isn’t convinced, wondering which is worse: the people who fight or the mercenaries who stay back to pick through corpses simply because they’re afraid to die. “She had always felt as if she knew the answers in life. Today, most of those had slipped from her.” During this scene, there’s one, short indication that Hanlon, the Darkfriend who wants Elayne, is here.
• Hurin fights with those on the east side of the Heights, fighting as much against the stench of evil here is against the Trollocs and Sharans. He’s still bewildered that Lord Rand had come to him, personally, to apologize for his behavior. “Well, Hurin would do him proud. The Dragon Reborn did not need the forgiveness of a little thief-taker, but Hurin still felt as if the world had righted itself. Lord Rand was Lord Rand again. Lord Rand would preserve them, if they could give him enough time.” Lan explains that they have a couple of minutes of peace while the Trollocs move corpses to make a path, but the next assault will be the worst one.
• In the Healing center, Annoura brings Galad to Berelain’s quarters. Annoura burned herself out making the gateway to save him. Just before falling unconscious, Galad takes out the medallion and whispers to her to bring it to Mat. “Hope.”

• From outside the Pattern, Rand watches the battles at Merrilor and Shayol Ghul and weeps, seeing the threads of the Pattern, woven from the lives of men, cut short, many burned out entirely by balefire. He sees Bashere and Deira die in a charge. Hurin falls to a Trolloc. “The man who had so much faith in him, the man who would have followed him anywhere.” Jori Congar whimpers as he bleeds to death. Enaila, the Maiden who had so babied Rand, who left Far Dareis Mai to weave a bridal wreath for Leiran but hasn’t yet been married, is speared through the gut by four Trollocs. Kalrdin Manfor, one of the earliest Asha’man, who fought at Dumai’s Wells, loses saidin and is set upon by Sharan daggers. Rand sees Bryne, Siuan, and Gawyn. Shai’tan continues to gloat. “GIVE IN, ADVERSARY. WHY KEEP FIGHTING? STOP FIGHTING AND REST.” Rand begs for it to end. Shai’tan spins one more possibility of what could be. Shai’tan weaves an absolute void. A compromise. “I GIVE IT TO YOU. THE PEACE OF THE VOID THAT YOU SO OFTEN SEEK. I GIVE YOU NOTHING, AND EVERYTHING.” Rand recognizes that this is what he nearly came to want when he stood atop Dragonmount with the Choedan Kal and he rejects it. Shai’tan will not offer this again. “Then the true pain began.”

• Taim is furious that Egwene bested him. Demandred commands him to go back and finish her. “I have slain her Warder. She should be easy meat.” Taim complains that Egwene has a sa’angreal, so Demandred gives him his, Sakarnen. “Succeed or die in this, M’Hael. Prove yourself worthy to stand among the Chosen.” Taim asks what Demandred will do if the Dragon Reborn appears and he laughs. “You think I would use this to fight him? What would that prove? Our strengths must be matched if I am to show myself the better.” Taim thinks to himself that Demandred is mad and that this is a recent change, from his time in Shara. Demandred warns Taim not to use the sa’angreal against him, as he’s attuned it to himself. He commands Taim to use balefire. “The world must be unraveled before we reweave it to our vision.”
• Elayne’s forces are being pushed back, up the river, nearly to the ruins. A group of Caemlyn refugees suddenly attacks them: they’re Hanlon’s mercenaries in disguise. Mellar beheads Birgitte and captures Elayne. He uses a blonde corpse with a dress like Elayne’s to announce that Elayne is dead while secretly taking her. “Your people still fight. Well, that ought to disrupt their ranks. As for you… well, apparently the Great Lord has a use for those children of yours. I’ve been ordered to bring them to Shayol Ghul. It occurs to me that you needn’t be with them at the time.” They’re only six months along, but a Dreadlord thinks he can keep them alive for about an hour, long enough to get them to Shayol Ghul is someone with the True Power Travels there.
• Min sits with Fortuona in Ebou Dar. Mat’s request for aid only just arrived and those assembled believe that he has waited too long. Yulan argues that they should not go. Beslan and Galgan both have faith in Mat. Yulan continues to press it. Min notes a viewing above his head: a chain, indicating that he’s a captive. She realizes that he’s under Compulsion. She looks around the room and notes a random so’jhin, the cute one with freckles we saw earlier in the command tent, has an unusual number of visions above her head for someone who can’t channel. Min announces, as Truthspeaker, that Fortuona has abandoned the armies of humankind, and she announces that there’s a spy among them. The so’jhin looks up, giving Min the confirmation she needs. She throws a knife at her and the entire room sees as the knife stops in the air. The damane try to catch her, but she escapes through a gateway. “Fortuona, it is obvious that the Shadow is doing whatever it can to keep us from this battle.” “I suppose you give me the opportunity… perhaps the mandate… to follow what my heart would choose, whether or not it is wise.” The Seanchan will return to Merrilor.
• The Aes Sedai rally to Egwene, women of all Ajahs in line to either side. They’re pushing the Sharans eastward, but Taim’s balefire is so powerful that when he hits Aes Sedai he burns them back hours, unkilling Sharans and undoing protective weaves, instantly killing people who had been previously defended. Egwene thinks back to when she Healed the cracks on the ground with crystals and she discovers a new weave, of all five powers. She throws it at Taim’s balefire, canceling it and Healing the pattern around them, patching the cracks with more crystals. The two continue to launch their opposing beams for a long moment. In her thoughts, Egwene names the weave “The Flame of Tar Valon.” The pain of Gawyn’s death fades as she groks that he will be reborn and the Pattern will continue. “The very weave she wielded calmed her anger and replaced it with peace.” Her beam cuts through Taim’s and hits him, crystallizing him from the inside out. Somehow Egwene knows that the weave would have less effect on someone not given to the Shadow. She sees that the Pattern here has been broken too much and is about to shatter into a void. “Watch for the light, Leilwin. As the Amyrlin Seat, I command you – find the seals of the Dark One’s prison and break them. Do it the moment the light shines. Only then can it save us.” She weaves a gateway and shoved Leilwin through, then severs the bond. Vora’s sa’angreal has no buffer, so Egwene draws far beyond her capacity. “Her body was spent. She offered it up and became a column of light, releasing the Flame of Tar Valon into the ground beneath her and high into the sky. The Power left her in a quiet, beautiful explosion, washing across the Sharans and sealing the cracks created by her fight with M’Heal. Egwene’s soul separated from her collapsing body and rested upon that wave, riding it into the Light.” From his position outside the Pattern, Rand sees Egwene’s death, adding her list to the names of those he’s failed. He barely holds back Shai’tan’s next attack. Egwene crystallized the bulk of the Sharan channelers. In the center of the explosion of light, Leane finds a column of crystal fifty feet high, with Vora’s sa’angreal frozen in its center. “The Amyrlin Seat has fallen!”

• Mat receives the news that Egwene is dead like a punch in the face. Still, he also learns that she took all of the Sharan channelers who had been fighting there with her. Mat’s gathered forces on the Heights are being pushed back to the edge. Even Tuon’s return might not be enough to save them. The Andorans and Aiel at the riverbed are without leadership and are crumbling quickly. Mat has his men hoist Rand’s banner of the ancient Aes Sedai as they prepare for the last push. “Mat felt a chill as he saw in the light of bonfires a long horsemen on a black stallion charge into the right flank of the Trolloc horde, making for the eastern slope of the Heights. Toward Demandred. Lan had gone to fight a war on his own.” Nearby, Loial spots Lan riding. “I need to witness this. The fall of the last king of the Malkieri. He would need to include it in his book.” “He pretended that he would still write the story. There was no harm to such a little lie.” He leaves Erith’s side to watch Lan. Tam has the Two Rivers archers shoot flaming arrows into the Trollocs in Lan’s way to clear a path and light the way. Lan wears the medallion that Galad gave to Berelain and charges directly to Demandred, cutting him a bit in his first attack. “Who are you?” “I am the man who will kill you.” Riding a torm through a gateway back to Merrilor, Min feels Rand tremble in the distance. He’s still watching the battles, helpless. He hears Demandred shouting to Rand’s people that Lews Therin has abandoned them. He knows that he’s failed, but he hears a small voice in the back of his mind telling him to let go. Lan fights Demandred recklessly, pressing him hard. Demandred can’t believe that any man from this time could fight like this. “I am just a man. That is all I have ever been.” “I have you. Whoever you are, I have you. You cannot win.” “You didn’t listen to me. I did not come here to win. I came here to kill you. Death is lighter than a feather.” Lan recklessly charges forward on to Demandred’s sword, taking the man straight through the throat. He sends his love to Nynaeve as the world grows dark.
• Rand sees Lan’s fall and struggles to fend off Shai’tan, spent. He hears his father’s voice again: “let go. Let them sacrifice. You can’t do this yourself.” Rand can barely think through the pressure and sense of loss. He hears Egwene calling him a fool, chastising him for marching to his death while forbidding everyone else from doing the same. “You have embraced your death. Embrace mine.” “And then, he let go. He let go of the guilt. He let go of the shame for having not saved Egwene and all the others. He let go of the need to protect her, to protect all of them. He let them be heroes.” The names from his list are ripped from him like physical things, removing the weight from his shoudlers. “Ilyena was last. We are reborn, Rand thought so we can do better the next time. So do better.” “And then, Rand al’Thor – the Dragon Reborn – stood up once again to face the Shadow.” He sees Shai’tan better. “The Dark One was not a being, but a force – an essence as wide as the universe itself.” “They would not give up. IT wasn’t just about Rand. All of them would keep fighting. The Dark One’s attacks lost meaning. If they could not make him yield, if they could not make him relent, then what were they?” Shai’tan continues to gloat, but coming off as more desperate than before. On the battlefield, Loial brings Mat news of Lan and Demandred. “Lan Mandragoran, you bloody wonderful man! You did it!” The combined armies of humanity shout out together “Tai’shar Malkier!” and surge across the Heights toward their stunned foe.
• Rand sees that they’ve won. “YOU CANNOT FATHOM IT, CAN YOU? IT IS BEYOND YOU. YOU BREAK US, AND STILL WE FIGHT! WHY? HAVEN’T YOU KILLED US? HAVEN’T YOU RUINED US?” “HERE IS YOUR FLAW, SHAI’TAN – LORD OF THE DARK, LORD OF ENVY! LORD OF NOTHING! HERE IS WHY YOU FAIL! IT WAS NOT ABOUT ME. IT’S NEVER BEEN ABOUT ME!” There’s a beautiful bit here that I won’t quote directly, as it’s quite long, where Rand lists off the people it’s really about. Morgase, Thom, Moiraine, Perrin, Nynaeve, Mat, Egwene. Everyone still fighting. “HERE IS THE TRUTH, SHAI’TAN. YOU CANNOT WIN UNLESS WE GIVE UP. THAT’S IT, ISN’T IT? THIS FIGHT ISN’T ABOUT A VICTORY IN BATTLE.” Shai’tan rages, impotently, that he can still kill them all. “ALL ARE MINE EVENTUALLY!”
• Rand and Shai’tan both focus on the battle. They see Mat still fighting, just needing one favorable toss of the dice to win. They see Olver, terrified, nearly caught, raising the Horn of Valere to his lips. Rand’s voice reaches everyone on the battlefield. “That one you have tried to kill many times. That one who lost his kingdom, that one from whom you took everything. That man. That man still fights!” Though bloodied, Lan lurches to his feet, holding Demandred’s head aloft. At that moment, the battlefield grows still, and they hear the Horn of Valere blowing.
• Mellar taunts Elayne, preparing to tear out her children, rape her, and let her die. White mist climbs up from the ground and, suddenly, Elayne sees what looks like an arrowhead sticking out from Mellar’s chest. Birgitte steps forward, once again a Hero of the Horn. “The heroes have returned!” Though dead, Birgitte rallies her guard. Elayne apologizes, but Birgitte is happy: her memories are back, she’s still bound to the Horn, and she’ll be reunited with Gaidal when she’s reborn. Still, she can’t return to Elayne’s side, and her Warder is gone. They ride together back to the battle. Elayne inspires the soldiers by fighting Trollocs with a sword. “How would you feel, if you saw your queen trying to kill a Trolloc with a sword as you ran away?” “I’d feel like I needed to bloody move to another country, one where the monarchs don’t have pudding for brains.”
• Mat and Narishma recover Lan as the armies of the Light press forward. The heroes of the horn come out to meet them. They explain that Mat is no longer bound to the horn, severed from it when we was killed by a Darkhound and saved by Rand’s balefire. Hawkwing also explains that they were wrong about the horn serving anyone who blows it: they would never serve the Shadow. They will fight with the Light, though they aren’t invincible and can’t win the battle alone.
• The Trollocs finally catch Olver, but just before they can hurt him, Noal appears, now a Hero of the Horn. “Suddenly, Olver felt a deep warmth. He had lost so many people, but one of them… one… had come back for him.”
• Don’t forget that the battle at Thakan’dar is still raging as well, though moving much slower due to the warping of time. The Wild Hunt, the greatest pack of Darkhounds, immune to normal weapons, arrives. The wolves fight back, though they can’t do anything but die. Aviendha spots Graendal and calls Amys and Cadsuane to fight her and her slaves.
• The Seanchan arrive, charging through the western side of the battlefield from their Traveling grounds near the Erinin. The dragoners fire directly through gateways to hit different parts of the battlefield without moving. In all his memories of battle, some much grander than this, Mat has never felt so proud. It’s nearly dawn, which means that it’s time for the people of Hinderstap to come back from the dead. Upriver, Jur Grady holds a letter from his wife and considers how horrible it was of Mat to send a village, including children, to be slaughtered to the last by Trollocs. Still, he has his orders. As dawn breaks, he opens a gateway to Hinderstap and is shocked to see the same people who died the night before charge through it. They swarm the Trollocs and Dreadlords, killing them all. Grady breaks the dam, releasing the river.
• As the battle continues, Logain abandons it to search for Taim’s sa’angreal. No one wants to challenge him directly, but Androl points out that Logain technically said that anyone without specific orders for something else should help with the search, and he did tell them to go after Taim’s followers earlier in the battle. Pevera has a plan. We see, from Mishraile, Alviarin, and the other Dreadlords’ perspective that they’re trying to stop the dragons, but then Mishraile spots Rand on the battlefield before quickly Traveling away. They read the residue to chase him into a forest and see Rand sitting on a stump before he runs away again. They pursue and suddenly realize that they can’t channel. Androl disguised himself as Rand to lure them in to a stedding. The Ogier too old to participate directly in the battle, but still more than strong enough to grab a handful of humans, capture the Dreadlords. They won’t kill them, but keep them in the stedding, perhaps the experience will even be good for the wayward humans. Androl hopes they can find a cure for Turning. They step back out of the stedding to find that Trollocs are slaughtering the Caemlyn refugees who had been helping with the wounded.
• Moghedien finds Demandred’s corpse and disguises herself as him, as Bao the Wyld. With so many of the Chosen dead, she has full access to the True Power. She starts rallying the Sharans, but then a gateway opens nearby and the dragons fire on them.
• At Thakan’dar, the storm is completely out of control, killing both sides indiscriminately. Graendal’s balefire opens more cracks of shadow in the ground, already turned to glass by lightning. The Darkhounds are causing massive casualties and the defenders have nearly fallen. The world here is now warped, with impossibilities occurring everywhere, like floating rocks and people sinking into rocks like water. Aviendha hears a thrumming from Shayol Ghul and sees plants growing in places, turning the once-barren ground green. In the sky, the white and black clouds swirl together, forming the ancient symbol of the Aes Sedai. She feels that the thrumming is somehow Rand himself. “As the Dark One ripped the land apart, Rand stitched it back together.” She continues fighting just as Rand is. “Fight on, shade of my heart. Fight on.” She’s attacked by a veiled Aiel and kills him, only to find that the corpse is Rhuarc. In the distance, an odd mist – Fain – has formed and the Trollocs are fighting one another in it. Graendal is winning the battle with Amys, Talaan, Alivia, and Cadsuane; Graendal doesn’t even need to use her own Power as she can simply drain it from her slaves. Seshalle drops dead, spent completely. Aviendha charges Graendal with a spear of light and fire. Graendal blows Aviendha’s feet apart with a weave of earth, but she’s already in the air. Graendal warps away with the True Power, which requires leaving her slaves, but Aviendha’s spear finds her side first and the two are warped together.
• Leilwin relays Egwene’s final message to Logain, still looking for the sa’angreal. Internally, he’s conflicted. He realizes, on some level, that what he’s doing is wrong, and he wonder whether the attempts to Turn him broke something within. Yet, he can’t remember being abused and gentled by the Aes Sedai. He needs to be too powerful to ever be put in such a situation again and he needs to be feared. Logain will not give up the seals, as they’re his. He feels Gabrelle’s disappointment through the bond and grows frustrated at her sincerity. He finally finds the sa’angreal, but it’s encased in crystal and it’ll take time to get out. Androl arrives with news of the Caemlyn refugees and begs Logain to help. Logain stands conflicted, the weave for balefire ready in his hand to try to carve the sa’angreal out.
• On the Heights, Mat rides with the Heroes of the Horn. Has asks, anxiously, whether he’s one of them, and they assuage his fears: though he’s done more than enough to qualify, he is not chosen. Mat no longer directs troop movements, as there’s nothing more to command. He joins the battle personally. The river returns, dividing the two forces of Trollocs. The Sharans and Trollocs are trying to flee the Heights. The Seanchan join the fighting in two places, bolstering Elayne while also hitting the Trollocs caught in the corridor between the bogs and the Heights. Seanchan monsters slaughter the Trollocs while the dragons fire into them. The battle is nearly over, with the enemies in full retreat. Those who escape the Seanchan flee only to drown in the bogs. Mat feels that he must return to Rand now. Before he leaves, he asks if Hawkwing knows the Seanchan and if he’ll speak to their Empress. If he does, he should mention that Mat sent him. Sadly, we don’t actually get to see this if it happens.

After the Last Battle at Merrilor

• The tables turned, Rand gloats to Shai’tan. “WHEN HAVE YOU EVER INSPIRED THE BEST IN MEN? YOU CANNOT. IT IS OUTSIDE YOUR POWER, SHAI’TAN. YOUR MINIONS WILL NEVER FIGHT ON WHEN HOPE IS LOST. THEY WILL NEVER STAND BECAUSE DOING SO IS RIGHT. IT IS NOT STRENGTH THAT BEATS YOU. IT IS NOBILITY.” “DEATH IS LIGHTER THAN A FEATHER.” “IT COMES DOWN TO THIS, FATHER OF LIES. WHEN HAVE YOU INSPIRED A PERSON TO GIVE THEIR LIFE FOR YOU?” “BRING MY DEATH, SHAI’TAN, FOR I BRING YOURS.”
• Aviendha and Graendal are on a rocky ledge together. Aviendha makes a gateway for Amys to help and ties it off. The two are both very weak, struggling to kill the other.
• Perrin awakens in Berelain’s palace, still exhausted, but well enough to go for Gaul. As briefly speaks with Master Luhhan, who inspected Mah’alleinir and names Perrin a true master of the craft. Perrin is frustrated that he pushed himself too hard and doesn’t have the strength now that he’s needed, but Luhhan asserts that, if there was ever a time to push yourself, this is it. “This is our last chance at the forge. This is the morning that the big piece is due.” “But if I collapse.” “Then you gave it your all.” “You may see in yourself someone who lets himself go too far, but that’s not the man I see. If anything, Perrin, I’ve seen in you someone who has learned to hold himself back.” “Those were good lessons for you to learn, son. You needed control. But in you, I’ve seen a boy grow into a man who doesn’t know how to let those barriers go. I see a man who’s frightened of what happens when he gets a little out of control. I realize you do what you do because you’re afraid of hurting people. But Perrin… it’s time to stop holding back.” Masuri removes Perrin’s fatigue and the two find a sort of reconciliation after Perrin’s long distrust of her after meeting with Masema behind his back. He steps into the dream in the flesh right there, summons his hammer to his hand, and goes to Thakan’dar.
• Sitting outside the cavern into Shayol Ghul, Thom sits and watches the world end, trying to think of the right words to capture the event. The word he comes up with is “exquisite.” “This was what the end should be like. The sky ripping apart as factions fought for control of the elements themselves, people from varied nations standing with their last strength. If the Light won, it would do so by the narrowest of margins.” Nine out of ten of the people who came to Thakan’dar are now dead, a remnant of a remnant. While thinking to himself, Thom spots Cadsuane moving toward the cavern, but notices that, though the disguise is perfect, the Dreadlord doesn’t walk like Cadsuane. He flips a knife into her back and adds her body to the other four he’s already stopped. Then, he takes out a pen and starts to compose his ballad.
• Mat finds Grady and asks for a gateway to Shayol Ghul, but normal gateways don’t work there anymore. Olver, horn in hand, needs to come with to bring the Heroes. Mat asks for a gateway to the Seanchan camp instead. There, he and Olver take a gateway as close to Shayol Ghul as possible, but with a to’raken to ride the rest of the way quickly.
• Fain, now taking the name “Shaisam,” has “grown vast,” feeding on the souls of Trollocs. They’re not very filling, but he’s killing them in multitudes through his mist, which moves through Shayol Ghul. His madness has retreated somewhat and his mind has reformed. He’s not yet fully reborn, as he needs to find a place to infest, “a place where the barriers between worlds were thin.” “The process would tkae years, but once it happened, he would become more difficult to kill.” In his current state, he’s very frail, as his mind is bound to the mortal body of Padan Fain. He uses his mindless drones as a distraction while he moves deeper into the armies, claiming all of them for himself. No one can reach him as no living thing can withstand the mist. Shayol Ghul is the perfect place for him to settle, but first, he’ll eat Rand, the strongest soul of them all.
• In the dream, Gaul still fights, keeping Slayer from striking at Rand. The wolves continue to fall around him and he whispers a farewell as they do: though he can’t speak to wolves as Perrin does, they are spear brothers. From his perspective, it feels like about two hours since Perrin left. Perrin returns to face Slayer, just as he was gloating over being a king again. “This place belongs to the wolves. Not to you, not to me, not to any man.” They resume their fight.
• As Mat and Olver fly over the battlefield, Mat spots Mashadar and the Darkhounds and he knows Fain and the dagger are in there somewhere. The dice are tumbling in his head. An arrow kills the to’raken but Mat and Olver survive the fall. Though Mat dropped the banner, a requirement for the Heroes of the Horn, the sky itself will suffice. Olver blows the horn again.
• Rand and Moridin break free from their stasis. It’s only been minutes from Nynaeve’s perspective. Rand asserts that Elan doesn’t matter any longer. In anger, Moridin throws his dagger at Alanna. It hits her heart, but the herbs Nynaeve used to keep her stable gave her enough consciousness to release the bond on Rand before she dies. Then, Moridin stabs his own right hand, causing Rand to drop Callandor.
• Perrin fights Slayer as completely as he fought the Whitecloaks when Hopper was killed. “This day, he took the leash off the wolf. It had never belonged there anyway.” Slayer flees the dream to get away from Perrin, not knowing that Perrin can follow him. “You, finally, are the prey.” They continue their flicker duel, teleporting around one another, but this time they constantly move in and out of the dream, tumbling through worlds at the end of reality. In the end, Perrin’s smashes Slayer’s head. When he looks up, the Aiel are around him. “You looked like you were running to a great dance, Perrin Aybara. One learns to watch for warriors like you on the battlefield and follow. They often have the most fun.” Levity aside, Perrin sees that the battle is over and the side of Light has lost. They cannot stand against the Wild Hunt. Then the Horn of Valere blows. “Lead Us, Young bull.” “Why must the heroes all be human?” The wolf heroes gathered in the dream appear with the horn as great pale beasts the size of Darkhounds. “The Last Hunt had finally, truly arrived.”
• Perrin and Mat find each other. Perrin asks after Faile, but Mat doesn’t know what happened to her. Fain’s mist comes close to them. Perrin has a score to settle with Fain, but as they talk, a small ribbon of Mashadar’s mist spears through Mat’s chest.
• On the ledge, Aveindha is too weak to crawl to the gateway or attack Graendal, barely able to resist the shield Graendal is trying to put on her. She sees that Graendal is preparing Compulsion. With no other options, she picks apart the gateway’s weave, causing an explosion. When its done, she finds that Graendal’s Compulsion weave was turned back on her, enslaving her to Aviendha.
• Perrin leaves Mat to handle Fain, seeing that Mat wasn’t actually killed. Mat lies on the ground until Fain draws close, confused at what happened there. Once he’s close, Mat grabs him by the throat. “There’s an odd thing about diseases I once heard. Fain. Once you catch a disease and survive, you can’t get it again.” Mat stabs Fain – Shaisam – through the heart with the dagger and he just fucking dies right away, just like that, after like 5 whole paragraphs about Fain in the whole book. Mat feels a momentary tug toward the dagger but doesn’t pick it up. The dagger dissolves with Fain’s body and the mist.
• Perrin goes back for Gaul and takes him to the camp in the Field of Merrilor to rest. He desperately wants to find Faile, but he knows that he needs to go to Rand first.
• Moridin picks up Callandor and embraces the True Power through it. This is, apparently, the moment they’ve all been waiting for. Nynaeve and Moiraine channel together to exploit the flaw in Callandor to take control of Moridin through it. They link with Rand, feeding him saidar and the True Power. Rand uses all three powers together to reach into the darkness, creating a conduit between light and shadow. Though Shai’tan is immense in its space, Rand grabs it, using the True Power like a glove to keep saidar and saidin from being tainted. He holds Shai’tan in his hand and light explodes out from him.
• Every one of our perspectives sees the light shoot into the sky, melting the top off of Shayol Ghul. Logain stands among the refugees he saved. “‘I am a fool,’ he thought. He had abandoned that power for what? To save these refugees? People who would spurn him and hate him for what he was. People who… who looked at him in awe.” The refugees flock to the Asha’man, weeping for their salvation. The young boys are all looking at Logain with only admiration, no fear, in their eyes. A mother comes to Logain, thanking him. “‘The Black Tower protects,’ Logain heard himself say. ‘Always.'” She promises to send her son to the Tower for testing when he’s of age. “‘I would have him join you, if he has the talent.’ The talent. Not the curse. The talent.” Logain sees Gabrelle and he sees the light. He breaks the seals.
• Perrin returns to the cavern in the dream. He finds Lanfear there and the two walk down the tunnel toward Rand. They see Rand holding Shai’tan in his hand. Lanfear is ecstatic. “I couldn’t have dreamed that it would come out this well. We will need to strike quickly. I will kill the taller woman, you the shorter one.” Lanfear laments that she hadn’t had enough time to win Perrin over truly, instead resorting to cheap Compulsion. Striking now, she can take sole credit for saving Shai’tan. Perrin realizes that something is wrong. “My duty is to do the things Rand cannot.” He thinks of Faile, his link to the world. He breaks the Compulsion. Before Lanfear can strike, Perrin grabs breaks her neck, killing her. (Yes, I know that Sanderson once said in an interview that delicate Lanfear somehow survived Perrin, perhaps the strongest character in the books, intentionally killing her. “Her neck popped in his fingers.” But if he wanted Lanfear to survive this scene then maybe he shouldn’t have unambiguously, explicitly killed her. Fan-theories that directly contradict the text are still head-cannons, no matter who has them.) Anyways, Perrin hates that he had to kill a woman, but he’s glad to have carried at least one burden for his friend. He cries for her, still affected by the Compulsion. (which doesn’t prove that she’s still alive, as we have no reason at all to think that Compulsion wears off when a person dies. Rand’s trick with Ramshalan was about balefire.)
• With the seals broken, Shai’tan bursts free, but Rand holds on tightly. He pulls Shai’tan into the Pattern. “Only here was there time. Only here could the Shadow itself be killed.” With Shai’tan compressed into his hand, Rand sees how pitiful it truly is. “Not one of the primal forces of existence, but a squirming thing from the mud of sheep pens.” He sees Shai’tan’s mind fully, understanding that Shai’tan’s offers of peace and the void were lies. “YOU WOULD HAVE ENSLAVED ME AS YOU WOULD HAVE ENSLAVED THE OTHERS. YOU CANNOT GIVE OBLIVION. REST IS NOT YOURS. ONLY TORMENT. YOU HORRIBLE, PITIFUL MITE.” Rand is quickly bleeding to death and he’s holding so much of the Power that he’ll certainly be burnt out when he releases it. He begins to squeeze, to kill Shai’tan, but realizes that Shai’tan was honest about one thing: a world without the Shadow would be as horrible as Rand saw in the potential world he created. He realizes what a fool he’s been and shoves Shai’tan back into the prison, then, using the three powers, weaves a pure, primordial shield around Shai’tan, fully remaking the prison, just as Herid Fel had figured. “He understood, finalyl, that the Dark One was not the enemy. It never had been.”
• The tunnel explodes in light. Moiraine and Nynaeve can only run. Moiraine looks back into the light, seeing Rand and Moridin still standing as the blackness in front of Rand is all sucked into a hole which shrinks into nothing and vanishes.
• Rand, unable to see clearly, stumbles out of the cavern, slipping on blood, and holding a body. The Pit of Doom closes shut just behind him. A woman kneels beside him and whispers “Yes, that’s good. That is what you need to do.” Rand feels the need to explain himself. “I see the answer now. I asked the Aelfinn the wrong question. To chose is our fate. If you have no choice, then you aren’t a man at all. You’re a puppet.” He passes out.
• Perrin walks the camp at Shayol Ghul. The wolves of the Last Hunt fade away to wait the next hunt. He sees Nynaeve and Flinn trying to Heal Rand. Perrin notes that he doesn’t think Rand, Mat, or himself are ta’veren anymore. Someone needs to send for Elayne, Aviendha, and Min, as it looks like Rand isn’t going to make it. Nynaeve is just barely holding herself together, having also learned that Egwene is dead. She weeps in Perrin’s embrace. “I left… to save you. I only came along to protect you.” Perrin hands her over to Lan and goes to find a gateway to look for Faile, bracing himself to the fact that she’s likely dead.
• Loial is frantically looking for Mat, trying to take notes for his book while it’s fresh. “Could an age start in the middle of a day? That would be inconvenient for the calendars, wouldn’t it? But everyone agreed. Rand had sealed the Bore at noon.
• Ituralde is still alive but King Alsalam is dead and the Merchant Council is all dead or vanished. Four Aes Sedai are trying to convince Ituralde to take the throne.
• Lan and Nynaeve both now wears crowns of Malkier.
• The Healing is working on Moridin, but not on Rand. Strangely, Min, Aviendha, and Elayne don’t seem concerned. None of them go in to hold Rand’s hand as he dies.
• Mat finds Fortuona. Karede survived and it seems like he’s not going to kill himself for honor. Nightflowers burst in the daytime sky above. Fortuona informs Mat that she’s with child. “Now I can kill you, if I want.” Mat grins broadly.
• Perrin searches for Faile but can’t find her, as there are too many dead. He learns that Lord and Lady Bashere are dead, so Faile would have been queen of Saldaea. Exhausted, Perrin finally collapses among the corpses, weeping.
• Moghedien survived the dragon fire. “All was not lost. She still lived. And she was of the Chosen!” “This might be a victory.” She kills a worker and disguises herself again, planning her glorious rise to power. Then, an a’dam snaps closed around her neck. “They said we could not take any who called themselves Aes Sedai. But you, you do not wear one of their rings, and you skulk like one who has done something wrong. I do not think you will be missed at all.” They have to drag Shanan the damane through the gateway.
• Nynaeve announces that Rand is dead, but Min, Elayne, and Aviendha still don’t grieve. Aviendha is busy speaking to the Wise Ones: Rhuarc’s death proves that her vision of the terrible future for the Aiel isn’t inevitable. Nynaeve knows something is up, but no one will explain it to her. They prepare a pyre for Rand.
• Perrin runs through the wolf dream, trying to escape the thoughts of men. “I had to go to Rand. I had to. But in doing so, I failed her!” HE jumps around the world. “Here he had wed her.” “Here he saved one of them.” “Here he had saved another. Two forces in his life. Each had pulled at him” “I learned. I learned from Malden. I didn’t do it again! I did what I was supposed to, this time.” Then, he hears a falcon. He shifts to Merrilor and finds a tiny falcon, as small as his hand, crying softly, with a broken leg pinned beneath a rock. He claws out of the dream, back the the field of corpses, and digs through the bodies. Beneath a Trolloc and a horse he finds Faile, barely breathing. He shifts her to Nynaeve. “Faile, his falcon, trembled and stirred. Then she opened her eyes and smiled at him.”
• Birgitte and Elayne talk. Birgitte hid Olver and the Horn somewhere where Elayne couldn’t use them as weapons for Andor. Elayne, though frustrated, thanks Birgitte for taking that decision from her. Birgitte is about to be reborn, just a bit younger than Gaidal. They say farewell.
• At Rand’s funeral, Tam lights the pyre, not wiping the tears from his eyes. It’s a quiet affair, with flowers blooming around Shayol Ghul. Min, Aviendha, and Elayne stand together, alone, before the pyre. “I’ve seen this. I knew it would come the day I first met him. We three, together, here.” “Now we make sure that everyone well and truly believes he is gone.” They feel the bond growing stronger with each moment.
• Rand awakens, his mind and soul now residing in Moridin’s – really, whoever it belonged to before Moridin – body. There’s a single saa in his right eye. Alivia left him some clothes and some coin. He steps outside and steals a horse to slip away. Cadsuane sees him go. “Those eyes had confirmed her suspicions. That would be information she could use. No need to keep watching this sham of a funeral, then.” Saerin, Yukiri, Lyrelle, and Rubine surround her. “We would like direction.” “Direction? Ask the new Amyrlin, once you find some poor woman to put into that position.” She realizes that that’s what they’re doing. “You always talked so wisely to the Dragon Reborn of responsibility.”
• Rand rides away on his stolen horse. He can’t channel at all, not saidin or the True Power. “No way to light the tabac. He inspected it for a moment in the darkness, then thought of the pipe being lit. And it was.” He still has Laman’s sword and he still has the love of three women. ” South. East or west would do, but he figured he wanted to go someplace away from it all for good. South first, then maybe out west, along the coast. Maybe he could find a ship? There was so much of the world he hadn’t seen. He’d experienced a few battles, he’d gotten caught up in a huge Game of Houses. Many things he hadn’t wanted anything to do with. He’d seen his father’s farm. And palaces. He’d seen a lot of palaces. He just had not had the leisure to have a real look at much of the world. That will be new, he thought. Traveling without being chased, or having to rule here or there. Traveling where he could just sleep in a barn in exchange for splitting someone’s firewood. He thought about that, and found himself laughing, riding on south and smoking his impossible pipe. As he did so, a wind rose up around him, around the man who had been called lord, Dragon Reborn, king, killer, lover and friend. The wind rose high and free, to soar in an open sky with no clouds. It passed over a broken landscape scattered with corpses not yet buried. A landscape covered, at the same time, with celebrations. It tickled the branches of trees that had finally begun to put forth buds. The wind blew southward, through knotted forests, over shimmering plains and toward lands unexplored. This wind, it was not the ending. There are no endings, and never will be endings, to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was an ending.”
• The series ends with a passage from Loial’s book. “He came like the wind, like the wind touched everything, and like the wind was gone.”

Outro

Okay, that’s it, that’s the entirety of A Memory of Light! I’ve already written the script for the analysis section, which should be around half the length of this video and I’m planning to get it out just a couple of weeks after this one. Once again, my apologies to anyone who doesn’t really care about the summary. Though the analysis is only about half the length of the summary this time, I actually spent much more time writing it. I think everyone’s really going to like it!

I have to admit, I’m a little worried that I overdid it on the details this time around. I always feel like the summary is too long and everyone always says that they like it. Well, let me know in the comments what you thought this time. Was this useful or interesting, or just too long? I mean, it’s still a hell of a shorter than the book, and I did add a lot of commentary and interpretation. I probably won’t go this deep again, simply because it took just an insane amount of time to actually write, edit, shoot, and video edit this. But, if everyone loves it…

Let’s call it here for today. Thanks for watching. See you all again in the analysis!